Clipper Sunrise

A sunrise view of the Washington Monument Thursday morning as clouds from an approaching clipper, a weather system originating from Canada, move into the area. Note, the setting moon, which was full two days earlier.

Clipper systems usually produce fantastic sunrises and light snowfalls, but this clipper was a disappointment in both categories. The best color with this sunrise actually occurred on the opposite horizon from the sun. The photo above was taken facing west, away from the sunrise. Below is a photo taken facing east, toward the sunrise. I'd give this clipper sunrise a 2 on a scale from 1 to 5.

My guess is that a large deck of clouds, well to the east of Washington, may have blocked some of the sunlight needed to produce vivid shades of red and yellow in the sky. I'm not sure of this, but we definitely lacked color in the eastern sky. See the satellite image below, taken at the time of sunrise, showing the cloud cover to the east of D.C. Oh well, there will always be another good sunrise to photograph soon. Hopefully, we can say the same about a good snowstorm.